GOLF

GOLF; Ailing Irwin Retains Lead

By GORDON S. WHITE Jr., Special to the New York Times

Published: May 29, 1988

DUBLIN, Ohio, May 28—
At 3 o'clock this morning, Hale Irwin was jolted awake by the pain of a stomach attack that would leave him weak and ill through the entire third round of the 13th annual Memorial Tournament today.

Nevertheless, the 42-year-old pro, with two Memorial and two United States Open triumphs to his credit, matched his score of the day before.

Drinking water at every tee to prevent dehydration and crouching like a catcher to rest while his partners played shots, Irwin toured the 7,104-yard Muirfield Village Golf Club course in four-under-par 68 to keep a staunch hold on his one-stroke lead going into Sunday's final round of the $930,000 Memorial.

The former University of Colorado defensive back has a 54-hole total of 10-under 206.

David Frost, the South African playing with Irwin and John Huston, said: ''I always say an injured player is a dangerous player. Hale played superb golf.'' Frost, who carded four birds and no bogeys, also had a 68 to be at 207 and tied with Curtis Strange, who was one of two men to equal the course record of eight-under-par 64 today.

Scott Hoch also shot 64. It was the second time he had done it in two years. That left him tied at 211 with Huston, a PGA Tour rookie, and Fuzzy Zoeller. Scott Verplank, who has not been heard from for some time, was at 210 after a 68. Spectacular Golf

It was a day of spectacular golf even though the greens at Muirfield Village remained extremely fast and almost as hard as they had been for the first two days of this Jack Nicklaus invitational tourney. Most golfers agreed that the low scores and excellent shot-making could be attributed to the early time they played today.

Payne Stewart, who was tied with Andrew Magee at 208, said: ''If we had wind today you wouldn't have seen those low scores. Playing early helped.''

The greens weren't completely dried out from the overnight and morning watering. There has been little rain here in recent weeks and the sun has baked the greens from cloudless skies for the past few days.

Irwin said, ''If these conditions hold you won't see any low scores like that tomorrow.''

Greg Norman, who shot 71 and then two-over 74, came back in a rush today with two eagles and a score of five-under 67 for 212. Bruce Lietzke also posted two eagles en route to a 71.

Norman nearly got a double eagle at the par-5 15th hole when his 3-wood second shot of 239 yards lipped out of the cup; he had a tap-in of inches for his eagle 3. He also eagled the par-5 fifth hole. Lietzke's eagles came at the par-5 seventh and the 15th.

Irwin started the day a stroke ahead of Frost, Huston and Tom Kite. But when he dumped his 7-iron approach at No. 1 into a bunker and bogeyed the par-4 hole, Irwin was tied for the lead. Frost Takes the Lead

He even relinquished the lead when Frost ran a string of three straight birds at 4, 5 and 6.

But Irwin birdied the seventh and eighth to tie for the lead again. His tee shot at the par-3 eighth was a 7-iron of beauty as the ball stopped 5 feet from the cup, which was cut front left, a most tricky spot to attack.

He regained the lead at the 12th, the next par-3 on the course, when he used the 7-iron again for the 156-yard tee shot. This time, Irwin rolled in a 12-footer.

Birdies at 14 and 15 put him two strokes ahead. That 3 on the short, par-4 14th hole was superb as a wedge shot left him but 6 feet from the cup.

But the hard, fast greens took their toll on Irwin at 18 when a 5-iron into the high green rolled uphill to the rear left corner. It was a downhill putt from there and Irwin had to treat it as if he were walking on broken glass: ever so delicately. His lag putt was 8 feet from the hole and he missed it to fall to a lead of one instead of two.

Then he was off to his motel room for medication and a night of rest.

Photo of Hale Irwin reacting as his approach shot on the 14th hole rolled past the cup yesterday in Dublin, Ohio (AP)